A great deal of merchandise is displayed for sale by means of display hooks mounted on apertured panel board. The arrangement facilitates attractive, easily changeable point-of-purchase display arrangements. On each of a plurality of merchandise display hooks, a plurality of similar items of carded or bagged merchandise are suspended, which may be removed one at a time by customers. A particularly advantageous form of such display hooks is represented by, for example, the Thalenfeld U.S. Pat. No. 3,289,993, owned by Trion Industries Inc. of Garden City, New York.
A characteristic inherent in most forms of panel board display hook arrangements is the outward projection of a wire-like merchandise supporting element of substantial length. This structural configuration, if improperly arranged by store personnel, has a potential to cause injury, in the case of a customer who accidentally falls against the projecting wire. With increasing emphasis being placed upon product safety considerations, significant efforts have been made to improve upon the inherent safety of panel board merchandise display arrangements. One advantageous form of merchandise hook for this purpose is described and claimed in the Karmin U.S. Pat. No. 3,374,898, also owned by Trion Industries Inc. In part, the device of the present invention represents an improvement on the general type of hook shown in the Karmin patent.
In accordance with one objective of the invention, an improved panel board merchandise display hook is provided, in which a wire-like, projecting arm for the support and display of merchandise is integrally associated with a second safety arm, which extends above the merchandise support arm and projects beyond the end extremity of the latter. At the outer end of the safety arm, there is formed or otherwise provided a downwardly extending guard means, which is positioned outward of and slightly above the extremity of the merchandise support arm. The safety arm and guard means effectively shield the tip of the merchandise support arm from accidental contact by a careless customer, at least in a manner that would be likely to cause injury.
In one form of the invention, the plate-like attachment is of molded, plastic construction, having some degree of flexibility or "give" to facilitate absorbing shock. In other forms of the invention, the plate-like attachment may be of extruded, advantageously somewhat more rigid material, which is adapted for attachment to the merchandise display hook in a semi-permanent manner to discourage unauthorized removal and/or exchange of product information coding.
In one form of the new merchandise display hook, a merchandise supporting arm and an outwardly projecting safety arm as above described, is formed of a single, continuous length of wire, of generally U-shaped configuration. The base portion of the U-shaped article is, in the operative position of the device, placed in vertical orientation against an apertured panel display board. An advantageous form of pivoting lug plate is carried by the base portion of the wire and is provided with upwardly extending, generally L-shaped lugs arranged to pass through apertures in the panel and, when pivoted into upright position, to lock the display hook in position thereon. In part, the novel mounting arrangement makes use of design features heretofore known. However, the arrangement is particularly well suited to the device of the invention, involving spaced upper and lower, outwardly extending arms, which are connected by an integral vertically extending base portion. In the arrangement of the invention, the pivoting lug-mounting plate is arranged to straddle the vertical base portion and to accommodate its vertical passage entirely through the region of the lug-mounting plate.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a novel and advantageous plate-like attachment is provided, for mounting on the extreme end area of the safety arm. Importantly, the plate-like device forms a label holder for a Universal Product Code information label, carrying product pricing and inventory information. The nature and location of the label holder is such as to place the label in a highly prominent position, out in front of the suspended merchandise, not only that of the particular display device in question, but also that of the neighoring devices, both above and to the side. The label-holding plate not only provides prominently displayed price and product information for the convenience of the customer, but also is formed with an optical scanning wand guide flange. This provides practical instrument-readability of the product information, to enable high speed, computer terminal input of product information for inventory purposes. In this respect, although the Universal Product Code system is coming into increasingly widespread use, it has been, up to this time, difficult and impracticable to utilize the Universal Product Code system for inventory purposes with respect to rack-support merchandise, as is contemplated by the present invention.
The label-holding device of the present invention not only provides a convenient and highly efficient facility for partially automated utilization of the Universal Product Code system, but in addition provides for improved safety in the wire hook display or rack merchandise. The extruded form of label holder provides for a high degree of flexibility to meet customer needs and desires, while enabling the product to be marketed at low cost.
For a more complete understanding of the above and other features and advantages of the invention, reference should be made to the following detailed description of a preferred embodiment and to the accompanying drawings.